Codex: Necron Tomb Fleet
by CALiGeR190
Summary: Everything you need to know about the Necron Tomb Fleet.
1. Strike Craft

**Necron Strike Craft**

_Ancient Predators_

**Doom Scythe Attack Craft**

Length: 12 metres

Wing span: 16 metres

Crew: 1 (Pilot).

Sub-light engine: Unknown

Power supply: Unknown

Standard Armament: 1 Death Ray, 2 Tesla Destructor Cannons (all mounted in an under-slung turret-array)

FTL capable: Unknown

Lore: The oldest, and easily one of the most powerful strike craft known to humanity, the Doom Scythe has ruled the void and skies over innumerable worlds long before any other race developed space flight. Unlike most Necron vessels, Doom Scythes operate far away from their parent fleets and tomb worlds, acting as advanced scouts and vanguard elements as both the first line of defence against intruders into Necron territory and the first elements of an invasion by a Dynasty.

In this capacity, the Doom Scythe has proven itself to rival even the Eldar race's Dark Stars and Raptors for sheer speed and mobility, while being more than capable of obliterating any opposing strike craft. The Death Ray able to even rip into the armour of un-shielded capital ships, unfortunate or particularly foolish captains having their ship torn to pieces by swarms of extremely mobile craft.

It isn't entirely known how it is powered, or how it propels itself with such incredible speed, but it is known that it's hardwired pilot is capable of collecting and processing billions upon billions of databased simulations of countless trillions of combat scenarios from the ancient war with the Old Ones, and apply appropriate manoeuvres to any and all situations. Performing it's manoeuvres with no concern for atmosphere or gravatic force, lacking any of the weaknesses of flesh-bearing pilot.

However, its open cockpit does present a structural weakness that skilled pilots could exploit. But failure to score a direct hit on the pilot likely wouldn't stop a Doom Scythe, as the thick Necrodermis armour simply regenerates any non-lethal damage taken. Only overwhelming firepower has proven reliable in stopping these craft, and the pilot never makes such solutions easy to fulfil.

* * *

**Night Scythe Assault Craft**

Length: 12 metres

Wing span: 16 metres

Crew: 1 (Pilot).

Sub-light engine: Unknown

Power supply: Unknown

Standard Armament: 1 Wormhole Generator, 2 Tesla Destructor Cannons (all mounted in an under-slung turret-array)

FTL capable: Unknown

Lore: The Night Scythe is largely the same as the Doom Scythe, and is normally deployed alongside the Doom Scythe in aggressive fleet-to-fleet or planetary invasion missions. The craft's main difference to the Doom Scythe is that it carries a captive wormhole instead of a Death Ray, allowing it to open a localised link back to a local Tomb World, large enough to support the transfer of necron warriors directly to a target location.

This method of troop delivery means that, unlike younger races, the night scythe does not need to be large and cumbersome to carry troops, and loses none of its fighter capabilities over the Doom Scythe while able to deploy vast numbers of troops onto opposing warships or onto a planet's surface. There is no known defence against such a delivery system. Prayer being all the Imperial crews can do when faced with massed Night Scythe attacks.

* * *

**Night Shroud Bomber**

Length: 20 metres

Wing span: 25 metres

Crew: 1 (Pilot).

Sub-light engine: Unknown

Power supply: Unknown

Standard Armament: 2 Tesla Destructor Cannons (Mounted in an under-slung turret-array), unknown number of Death Spheres (internally stored)

FTL capable: Unknown

Lore: In the event that Night Scythes and Doom Scythes are insufficient for destroying a target, the Night Shroud is deployed to reap its own terrible toll on any brave or foolish enough to resist the inevitable.

The Night Shroud is larger and better protected than most Necron strike craft, but unlike the bombers of younger races this bomber does not sacrifice its fighter-killing power. still possessing a pair of Tesla Destructors, and still capable of manoeuvres no living pilot can match. However, the true horror of the Night Shroud lies in its Death Sphere armament. Each being a containment device for a fragment of anti-matter, annihilating targets on the atomic level once launched at a chosen target. Anything not protected by heavy layers of void shielding very quickly ceases to exist under a bombardment of such weapons.


	2. Escorts

**Necron Escorts**

_Raiders of a Lost Empire_

**Dirge Class Raider**

Size: 0.9 KM long, 1.4 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: No known limit

Defences: Necrodermis Armour and Scarab Swarms

Standard Main Armament: 1 Lightning Arc Battery

Standard secondary Armament: Gauss Cannons, Tesla Cannons and Scarab Swarms

Auxiliary craft: N/A

Lore: The smallest ship known to be in use with the Necrons, and of all the escorts in the galaxy the Dirge is among the least well documented and understood vessels. Believed to act as a scout and vanguard vessel for Necron Harvest fleets, these ships have proven to be deceptively powerful and difficult to an extreme to catch and destroy.

Its Necrodemis armour able to repair at an extremely rapid rate and retreat into a pocket dimension when threatened with overwhelming firepower. The Dirge also seems to defy any physical limits to its acceleration rate or maximum sustained acceleration, completely outclassing any vessel in the Imperial Navy for speed.

In terms of firepower, the Dirge's size is not to mistaken as weakness. The Lightning Arc Battery it is equipped with able to split its fire between multiple targets and render any and all defences pointless. Arcs of living energy snaking around and breaking apart warships as though they were little more than toys. Its only limit seeming to be a short range. A weakness that has proven nearly impossible to exploit due to the speed and durability of all Necron vessels.

The most well-documented combat scenario involve the Dirge Class was during the Yucatan Incident in M40. Farsight vanguard-squadron engaging a Necron fleet that they had been alerted to by the local colony of Merida. The battle plan being to send forward the Cobras to pin and harass the unidentified fleet so larger fleet assets could arrive to deal with the clearly larger and better-armed vessels. The plan failed at the first hurdle, a pair impossibly fast escorts later identified as Dirge Class raiders closed the distance before the Cobras could manoeuvre for a torpedo run, destroying 4 cobras in very short order before chasing down and destroying a 5th. The 6th destroyer only able to escape when her captain ordered an emergency Warp jump.

The later-recovered Black-box of the Light Cruiser _Farsight_, along with final transmissions from Yucatan PDF forces, painted a similarly grim picture of the performance of the larger vessels. The squadron wiped out in under an hour, and planetary defences overwhelmed for no damage to the opposing fleet. When a larger Imperial fleet, with battleship and battle-cruiser support, arrived in the system weeks later: the entire system was barren. The mysterious fleet long-gone. Aside from this incident, the Dirge has been spotted only a handful of times, but it is little solace to the unfortunate escort commanders who encountered them.

* * *

**Jackal Class Raider**

Size: 1.2 KM long, 1.6 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: No known limit

Defences: Necrodermis Armour and Scarab Swarms

Standard Main Armament: 1 Lightning Arc Battery, Portal Array

Standard secondary Armament: Gauss Cannons, Tesla Cannons and Scarab Swarms

Auxiliary craft: N/A

Lore: The Jackal is the larger of the two known Necrons escorts, incorporating a portal array into its already deadly armament, allowing the vessel to open portals on opposing vessels and materialise necron warriors directly onto the decks of enemy warships and render vessels many times larger than the Jackal little more than helpless prey.

Just like the Dirge, the Jackal is impossibly fast and mobile, and has the same almost indestructible defences. Defences only breakable with overwhelming firepower that the necron escort could easily evade.

The Jackal is far more commonly seen than the Dirge, most notably seen in fighting during the Orphean War in M41, where several dozen Jackals of the Maynarkh Dynasty engaged with hundreds of Imperial Navy and Space Marine Escorts in the titanic Battle of Amarah. Although the battle was inconclusive for either side, and the Dynasty lost a significant number of its escorts, several Harvest Ships, and the near-destruction of one of the Tomb-ships leading the assault: the Jackals made a good showing, delivering far worse punishment on their competition. Successfully annihilating several full escort squadrons with their Lightning Arc Batteries before engaging and destroying the Flagship of the armada: the STC-grade Apocalypse Class Battleship _Arica Dominus_.

The loss of such a rare gem was catastrophic for Battlefleet Orpheus, which lost 70% of its total fighting force in the battle along with much of its leadership. The Battlefleet has since been dissolved, along with the Orpheus Sector, as several of its now-revealed tomb worlds where destroyed utterly by the retreating Naval forces to prevent the recovery and further advance of the necrons. Both sides of the conflict inflicting mortal blows on the other, from which neither the Imperium or the Mayharkh dynasty will ever fully recover from. But with the resurgent alien empire now in almost total control of the once proud Imperial Sector, and signs of necron aggression all along the Orpheus Sector Border, it would seem Kutlakh the World Killer is far from finished with his deathly duty in the Tempestus Segmentum.


	3. Light Cruisers

**Necron Light Cruiser**

_Mysterious lethality_

**Shroud Class Light Cruiser**

Size: 3 KM long, 3.6 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: No known limit

Defences: Necrodermis Armour and Scarab Swarms

Standard Main Armament: 2 Lightning Arc Batterys

Standard secondary Armament: Gauss Cannons, Tesla Cannons and Scarab Swarms

Auxiliary craft: N/A

Lore: The Shroud is on of the most recently discovered of the necron vessels by the Imperium, and the cause of the most chaos in the ordo xenos of all the necron discoveries. It first came into Imperial records in M41.992 when Battlefleet Pacificus reported a series of identical raids of orbital stations and patrol fleets arranged as part of the Hydraphur outer defences. The Necron vessels (or vessel, the nature of the raids makes it difficult to determine), recorded as being larger than a Jackal, but smaller than a Harvest Ship, launched attacks that crippled naval blockade or intercept actions and did significant damage to the Hyradphur defence parameter. But rather than launch an assault at the vital forge world, and HQ for one of the Imperium's largest battlefleets, they always faded away just as suddenly as they came.

The purpose of these raids at the time were unclear. Attacking such strong Imperial strongholds, without the intent on taking them, in repeated methodical fashion confused the Inquisition and Naval High Command equally. The Ordo xenos also puzzled over the purpose of such vessels in Necron fleet doctrine, for surely such capital ships were too small to be command vessels of Necron Lords, but too large and impressively powerful to be 'lowly' raiders? The doubled Lightning Arc batteries and greater mass of armour seeming unnecessary in the eyes of the Inquisition for its apparent raiding role, although it is theorised that their design is a relic of a war that ended long ago and their original purpose gone with it.

However, the answer to why the attacks on Hyradfur were carried out would soon become clear, as the Necrons were trialling and testing Imperial defences and the abilities of their Shrouds to infiltrate and penetrate the defences of major forge worlds. For six years later, Holy Mars itself was the subject of a lightning raid launched by five Shroud Class Light Cruisers. The Light Cruisers managing to penetrate deep into the sol system without being detected, Battlefleet Solar only detecting them once they had passed Jupiter, and were not able to catch the much faster necron vessels before they could reach the red planet. The attack would prove to be a suicidal one, however: as nova cannon batteries, heavy gatling macro cannons and trans-dimensional lances parted the thick smog and mists of Mars with the unfettered fury of the Machine God; ending 4 of the Light Cruisers before they could reach the planets surface. But one did land, shortly before being torn apart by the cyclone of firepower thrown at the raiding vessels, and not before the five had done significant damage to the ships and stations orbiting Mars.

The raid has worrying implications for Necron fleet capabilities, and what might lie beneath the surface of Mars to cause such a suicidal attack. Some Tech Priests have called for the carpet fusion-bombing of the whole area and its burial in ferromite, although there is still much argument over how best to react to the situation. Regardless of the outcome, it seems clear that nowhere is safe from a resurgent Necrontyr Empire.

* * *

**Khopesh Class Light Cruiser**

Size: 3.6 KM long, 3.8 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: No known limit

Defences: Necrodermis Armour and Scarab Swarms

Standard Main Armament: 4 Lightning Arc Batterys, 1 Partical Whip Battery

Standard secondary Armament: Gauss Cannons, Tesla Cannons and Scarab Swarms

Auxiliary craft: N/A

Lore: The Khopesh, like many Necron vessels, is as deadly as it is poorly understood. And with the turn of a new millennium comes new and terrible discoveries about the composition and capabilities of the Necrontyr Navy. The ship surpasses the previously discovered Shroud Class in nearly every category, and more closely resembles that of a full cruiser (like the dreaded Harvester) than a Light Cruiser (of any kind).

The most striking feature of the Khopesh, upon its discovery fighting Chaos warfleets in the Agripinaa Sector; not far from the forge world Agripinaa itself, was its size and armament. The Khopesh was noticeably larger than the previously sighted Necron light cruisers, and from combat analysis it was shown to have a significantly more powerful armament than any vessel of comparable size known to the Inquisition. Combining a massed battery of Arc-Lightning weapons with a devastatingly powerful Partical Whip battery, that had previously only been seen in use on Necron capital ships. Such terrifying weapons able to render any defences totally worthless as they cleave effortlessly through any material that offends its master.

The Khopesh is also special for having abnormally thick layers of Necrodermis armour, even heavy Archeno-tech lances have been observed to have only very limited effect on these warships, weapons that are known to be greatly effective against other light necron vessels. Their effectiveness as combat vessels, needless to say, is therefore far beyond that of anything previously recorded in the 'Light' weight class.

The exact purpose of the Khopesh then, seems very clear; it is intended as pure-breed warship for the destruction of anything that threatens the Necrontyr Empire. As their uncommon durability and firepower marks them above that of even other necron vessels of the same weight class. Making it highly likely that, as the threat of Chaos is greatly expanded with the Fall of Cadia, ever more of these brutally efficient killing machines will be become an increasingly common sight. To the certain dread of all 'lesser' races.

* * *

**Cartouche Class Light Cruiser**

Size: 3 KM long, 3.6 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: No known limit

Defences: Necrodermis Armour and Scarab Swarms

Standard Main Armament: 2 Lightning Arc Batterys, 1 Partical Whip Battery

Standard secondary Armament: Gauss Cannons, Tesla Cannons and Scarab Swarms

Auxiliary craft: N/A

Lore: The Cartouche, like the Khopesh, is a discovery made with the turn of a new millennium that promises only ill-tidings for the realms of man. This new light cruiser seeming to share similar mysterious lineage with the previously documented Shroud Class Light Cruiser. Although, with notable differences.

The Cartouche, after its initial discovery (the infamous '157' incident), has been revealed to have significantly greater firepower than the shroud in the addition of a horrifyingly powerful Partical Whip Battery. Further increasing the already formidable combat potential of the Necron light cruiser. In addition, the Cartouche appeared to have a silencing effect of long and short range communications. Meaning victims of a Cartouche attack are likely to be destroyed in total isolation from reinforcements, the Light Cruiser now theorised to be the culprit for many 'disappearances' in areas of space now known to be active Necron Dynastic territory.

This ability, combined with the natural near-supernatural mobility of all Necron vessels and the increased firepower; was used to devastating effect to render the Hive World of Ellestratum totally defenceless in the wake of a Harvester Fleet. Ellestratum was a moderately important Imperial world, home to nearly a hundred billion souls, and had a permanent picket fleet stationed in orbit alongside significant defensive orbital facilities. Against any conventional attack, these defences working in co-operation with the huge array of ground-based lance batteries, Hive City Void Shields and torpedo launchers; should have delayed an attacker long enough for a significant force from the local battlefleet to respond.

Perhaps realising this, or perhaps simply to reduce potential risk, the Necrons deployed a vanguard of Cartouche Light Cruisers ahead of the main fleet's arrival. These cruisers swiftly, in the time-span of hours, scoured the planet clean of the entirety of the it's orbital defences. Launchers and batteries were destroyed in their mountings, orbital facilities were left burning and gutted, while the tumbling hulks of the picket fleet fell upon Hive cities whose Void Shields offered no protection to the precise and deadly attention of the Necron Partical Whips. News of this massacre would not even reach Imperial Authorities until weeks later, by which point the planet more closely resembled a mass graveyard than the thriving hub of imperial industry it had once been.


	4. Cruiser

**Necron Cruiser**

_Reaper of the Harvest_

**Scythe-Class Harvest Ship**

Size: 5 KM long, 3.6 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: No known limit

Defences: Necrodermis Armour and Scarab Swarms

Standard Main Armament: Star Pulse Generator, 2 Lightning Arc Batteries, 1 Partical Whip Battery, Portal Generators and a Sepulchre

Standard secondary Armament: Gauss Cannons, Tesla Cannons and Scarab Swarms

Auxiliary craft: N/A

Lore: Of all the ships the Imperium knows of, few are as terrifying as the Harvest Ship, both for its terrible power and the terrifying fate of any who survive the initial encounter. The simple rumour of a Harvester fleet being anywhere near a system being enough to trigger mass panic and anarchy in every strata of Imperial society.

The Harvest Ship was one of the first necron ships encountered by the Imperium, being classified as a 'Scythe Class' during the Yucatan incident in M40. Since then, nearly every necron fleet has been built around or included at least one Harvest ship in its retinue for the terrible harvest of intelligent populations for experimentation purposes. The Silent King wishing to return his race to bodies of flesh and blood, and seeks suitable hosts through the of the grotesque and morbid Harvest fleets.

For the Imperial Navy, the feeling of panic and dread is no different, for few of humanities enemies can claim to have such a powerful vessel, and very few survive encounters with a Harvest Ship even in the event of victory. The Lighting Arc Batteries and Partical Whips making easy prey of any Imperial vessels, Solar Pulse Generator cutting great swaths through the proud formations of the holy navy, and the despicable Sepulchre weapon robbing even those not destroyed in battle of their sanity. The arcane device driving crews into a mad frenzy of blood letting and carnage. All the while portals deploy Necron Warriors and Canoptek Scarabs directly onto the decks of navy warships.

The only recorded Tactical 'Victories' over Harvest ships was at the Battle of Amarah, were at least twenty Harvest Ships as part of the biggest Necron fleet ever recorded fought a massive Imperial Armada including 11 of the Imperial Navy's finest Battleships at the core of its formation. Here, fire from Retribution and Apocalypse Battleships proved sufficient to either force the Necron vessels into retreat, or even destroy them outright, while daring bomber runs launched by the Emperor Battleships reaped their own bloody tolls on the Necron Harvest Ships and Raiders. But for each victory, the Navy payed double or triple its price in lives and equipment, the battle ultimately resulting in both sides suffering significant but indecisive damage with no clear victor.

Even the finest the Imperium had to offer proving to be, at best, a match for the Harvest Ships. And the most terrible implication of that is that the Harvest Ships are far from the worst the Necrontyr have at their disposal.


	5. Battleship

**Necron Battleship**

_Doomsday's Herald_

**Cairn Class Tombship**

Size: 20 KM long, 15km abeam at widest point

Max Acceleration: No Known Limit

Defences: Advanced Stealth and dampening Fields, Reactive Necrodermis hull, localized power fields, regeneration and scarab repair

Standard Main Armament: Unknown number of Lightning arc batteries and Gauss Particle whip batteries, 3 portal generators, Star Pulse Generator, Sepulchre and an Energy Drain Field

Sautekh Configuration: Additionally has shields

Standard secondary Armament: Scarab Hives, Gauss turrets

Auxillery Craft: Undetermined numbers of Tomb blades, Night scythes, Doom scythes, Night shrouds

Lore: The Cairn Class Tombship is the single most powerful commonly produced necron vessel known to operate in the 42nd millennia, and the only known Necron vessel classed as a battleship. It is the largest Necron vessel encountered to date, though there have been rumors amongst the orks of a Tombship larger than a spacehulk. They have been encountered in all but one scenario with no less than 3 Scythe Class harvest ships and attendant fleets, and are at the head of most major Necron offensives. Cairn Class ships are always the flagship of a noble, and serve as mobile tombs for reawakening and repair of their attendant legions, making them mobile lynchpins in Necrontyr advances.

These mighty vessels are also one of the few to possess not one, but three separate types of faster than light travel. The first is the infamous Necron ability to "phase out", allowing for instant disengagement of any vessel nearing destruction. The second type of faster than light travel is using Dolmen gates, which also allow them to pursue fleeing Eldar into the webway. However, many high ranking Necron nobles disdain this method of travel, both due to its (relative) unreliability and due to their unrelenting disdain for the Eldar and all their works. The final way a Cairn may traverse the galaxy is with its Inertialess drives. Serving as both its sub and faster than light engine, this method is the fastest and most reliable form of FTL in the galaxy outside of direct teleportation.

The Necrontyr are terrible to face on the ground, but in the void of space their true power becomes known. Their firepower is terrible to behold, with even their defense turrets being capable of tearing apart Mechanicus cruisers and other such capital ships in short order. Indeed, their firepower is so great the sensors of specialized Mechanicus ships could not grasp it, as it went beyond their ability to sense. The deadlier of the secondary weapons used by a Necron ship are its scarab hives. These spawning pits create scarabs that can swarm over and inside a ship, taking it apart piece by piece. They additionally possess the ability to disrupt communications or functions, or even take them over to serve the Necron cause. Alternatively, they may detonate with great force in a manner similar to the ordinance of a bomber

Of the main guns of a Tomb Ship, no ship known to the imperium has ever survived a single hit. The highest kill count observed so far in a single volley is attributed to the flagship of Maktlan Kutlakh, the Dead Hand, which slew three strike cruisers and a battleship simultaneously. In the even the guns do not simply bypass the shield in a manner similar to the deadly Gauss particle whip, they will simply plow through them with deadly force and shear even a battleship in half. Even more deadly are specialized weapons often carried by these ships. Of the many horrors the full fleet holds, only three have yet been named by the imperium.

The first of these horrors is the energy drain, capable of simply turning off a ship in its entirety, life support and all, whilst using that energy to repair itself. The second is the star pulse generator, which does not harm other Necron ships. This massive pulse of energy vaporizes any ship that strays to close, and is more frequently used to clear the skies of fighters and ordinance. The third special weapon used by Tombships is the Sepulchre. Few can say what this device truly is, but all can agree that it is vile. Any who draw to close to a ship bearing this device are driven into a fearful madness, in which they attack and destroy their fellow crew, their ship, and themselves. Additionally, the Tomb ship possesses a high number of teleporters, allowing for many precise teleportation attacks to be made, even though void shields.

The defensive abilities of a Tombship are no less impressive. They have been known to take bombardment from entire fleets and come out entirely unscathed, even in one instance a fleet containing an Infernus class battleship. They are immune to a wide variety of celestial phenomena, and have never taken damage when hit by a nova cannon beyond a snapping of the uppermost antennae. These ships have been known to lie dormant under the crust of world's for millios of year unprotected, only to instantly awaken to full capability when necessary. They have a vast array of electromagnetic warfare suites which allow them to confuse enemy sensors and deactivate enemy ordinance, such as torpedoes.

Their stealth is very high tiered, as is their ability to see through others attempts to hide. Shadowfields, mimic engines, and holofields all fail instantly before these sensor suites, as do the ships behind them to the Cairn's weaponry. The ship itself is virtually invisible, seeming to wrap space around it and reflect vision in a way that make getting a clear sense of its shape or size nearly impossible for sensor and sight. Indeed, the ship is described as being "impossibly black".

However, the Tombship's greatest defensive ability is its speed. There is no set speed a Necron can fight at due to its specialized drives, but whatever speed they decide on it is usually considered impossibly fast by those moving at .75c. The inertialess drive allows the ship to travel at speeds unimaginable to lesser races, completely bypassing gunlines and blockades to instantly reach their targets. The speed is so great that on one occasion the ship had entered a system occupied by Word Bearers, annihilated a Dark Age of Technology star fortress completely, and entered atmosphere before they noticed. Additionally, their lack of inertia allows Tombships to turn on a dime, completely stopping and changing vector without any build up or counter force. This allows them to instantly flank any fleet simply by flying past them and instantly turning around, to great effect.

Necron ships, though lacking in shields, are a dangerous proposition to board. Their hulls dampen any emissions coming from within or without, making lighting strikes an uncertain thing. Additionally, the interior of the ship is capable of simply changing its layout, or consuming any material it in contact with. Even unchanged, the interior is an eldritch labyrinth, connected as much by teleportation and portal as by walkway and bridge. It is a place where even a chaos marine can lose his bearing, and to walk forward can lead backwards, and to walk down can lead you up. This makes the decision to board a costly one, and indeed in the past entire companies of terminators have been lost this way. As such, no Cairn class ship has ever been confirmed destroyed by the Imperium of Man, as even the Implacable Conqueror was merely thrown into the sun, which unbeknownst to the imperium it was quite capable of resisting and devouring.

Tombships additionally possess many abilities that can only be classed as "axillary". For one, they are capable of storing great amounts of energy, and either unleashing it as a massive flare or adding it to what has already been set aside for regeneration, creating an effect observed to be similar to a resurrection orb on a grander scale. They generally take this energy from a star, and are capable of draining one to nothing in a scant few hours. They can also cause the star to erupt with enough force to glass nearby planets, though they see it as a form of sensor jamming. Alternatively they can simply take the star and leave, killing the system and everyone in it in short order. Additionally, they can fling the hearts of dead stars at immense speed to shatter formations and battleships with trivial ease

They have also been known to use upscaled invasion beams to deploy countless thousands of warriors and hundreds of monoliths within minutes, with the full deployment of the ships immense reservoir of forces not taking much longer. Additionally, the ship can serve as a gateway to any tombworld networked to its dynasty, leading to any invasion never ending unless it is brought down. The ship also possesses the ability to hover within atmosphere above cities without damaging them, and is silent. The ship can also use the energy stolen from stars to boost its speed even further, or enhance the power of its weapons. The ship is also extremely unnerving to those nearby, and can easily jam the sensors of imperial vessels and planets. On one occasion, it has been noted to have the ability to cover an entire planet in storms, through which nothing could be discerned.

The Cairn Class is without question the most fearsome opponent the imperial navy has ever faced, save the World Engine. While it is most treasured tool of the Necron Nobility, it is also one of their weaknesses. Many come to feel it is a partner, a reminder of a life lost and will protect the ship with unprecedented ferocity. As such, they will often choose it over their objective, which can make all the difference in a doomed fight against the Necron navy. Even the most logical of Phaeron's will act emotionally about it, as even Imotekh was resistant to abandoning his flagship, being almost willing to face the entire Black Templar chapter to retain it. Indeed, it was damage to the Dead Hand at Amarah, the only time a Cairn has ever been damaged in naval combat that caused the Maynarkh Dynasty to disengage from the slaughter they had been taking part in, despite victory being easily in hand with imperial casualties having taken 70-90% casualties.

Even with this opportunity, it is best for the foes of the Resurgent Necrontyr Empire that this ship is extremely rare, having only appeared 7 times in the 41st millennium. Unfortunately, this ship, like the empire, has been appearing more and more as the clock ticks forever onwards. As the 42nd millennium dawns, there a fears that this ship might become commonplace, a fear which might come true.


End file.
